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Wi-Fi security is a big deal. The widespread adoption of Wi-Fi over the last decade combined with early security protocol design flaws, multiple high-profile security breaches, and the recent explosion of mobile commerce initiatives have placed Wi-Fi security at the forefront of industry regulations and corporate IT security budgets.

Last time I wrote about the WIPS evaluation factors on this blog, I focused on the WIPS features and did not discuss the topic of integrated/overlay WIPS. While that post was well received, readers also wanted to see the discussion on the integrated/overlay WIPS architectures. I hear them, since almost everyone planning the WIPS project in the enterprise network is faced with making the choice between these two architectures. So the question arises: Are there any objective criteria that can be used to make the judicious decision on the WIPS architecture that is right for the particular environment? Yes there are, and that is precisely the topic of this post. In this post, I will lay out some factors which can help compare these two WIPS architectures for your environment.

Back in the early Spring when the Michigan snow clung to the ground like a two-year old to mommy’s leg, I wrote about Fluke Networks’ new handheld network analysis tool, AirCheck. My original test product for that article was an early alpha unit that was returned to Fluke Networks after a hardware bug (it was fixed) was discovered. Ever since, I’ve had a slight nagging feeling that I left the intro blog a little short and lacking in visual material. I find it apt timing that a similar product was released back in December, which could make for some interesting discussion in the comments section. Anyway, to make good after my initial limitations, here’s a follow-up that demonstrates the device, its features, and its interface.

Here's a short video demonstrating how to find the WLAN chipset for your Wi-Fi products. There are some good product chipset lists out there, but instead of giving a fish, here's a video that teaches how to fish. Go discover your own chipsets.

I bought an iPhone 4 and I generally like it, but Apple’s restrictive Wi-Fi API (and their app approval policies) chaps my hide. I’m sure it chaps the hide of all Apple iOS device users that read the CWNP blog. If I dwell on that topic, it irritates me. But, that’s their prerogative, and that’s also the beauty of a free market. As Apple’s main competition in handset software, Android has a much more open approach to the 802.11 API, and for that reason, there are already a load of basic Wi-Fi apps out there like WiFi Analyzer and WiFiFoFum. While helpful, these apps are all fairly basic and consumer oriented. Enter Ekahau Mobile Survey.

All of the current and future Wi-Fi frequencies and technologies are getting confusing. There are actually more than you might think. Let’s take a high-level look at what’s out there and what’s coming up.

To all of you AirMagnet fans out there, AirMagnet released a press release yesterday to announce a handful of nice (could I use a more generic word?) updates to their WLAN analysis and survey products. I had the privilege of beta testing the core update, multi-adapter support. For anyone that spends time designing/surveying for new networks or troubleshooting existing networks, this feature is a must have because it provides network analysis insight that you can’t get from a single adapter and it makes the surveying process more efficient.

In my previous post , I explained a few details about 802.11 preauthentication. There was a great comment after that blog asking/stating how preauthentication works with WPA. It went like this: “Wouldn’t pre-authentication only be valid for an 802.11i (WPA2) RSN network since the 802.11-2007 standard specifically states the pre-authentication capability is advertised in the RSN IE? This would mean that Wi-Fi Alliance pre-standard WPA would not be able to use this feature since it uses the WPA IE, not the RSN IE.” -- Andrew

Preauthentication is a seemingly duplicitous SOB of a protocol. Since I’ve had this same conversation at least 3 times in the last few weeks, it seemed a good time to extract the truth. You ready? Get your SCUBA (did you know that SCUBA is an acronym?) gear cause we’re going deep.

I spent the end of last week (6th-8th, that is) at Ruckus’ BigDogs partner and customer conference in Atlanta, and I have two words to describe it: fun and irreverent. In fact, I met David Callisch (VP, Marketing) at the reception on Wednesday night and that was the word he used to describe the event: irreverent. I’ll keep this blog short, but I do want to mention a few things about the conference and the company that hosted it.